Ex-museum director faces sentencing

Tuesday

Oct 30, 2007 at 2:00 AM

A few short years ago, John Carter was a well-paid maritime buff with a lavish home, a cache of artwork and the love of his longtime wife. Then, in June, the Osterville resident pleaded guilty to pilfering $1.5 million from the Philadelphia museum he headed for 17 years.

HILARY RUSS

A few short years ago, John Carter was a well-paid maritime buff with a lavish home, a cache of artwork and the love of his longtime wife.

Then, in June, the Osterville resident pleaded guilty to pilfering $1.5 million from the Philadelphia museum he headed for 17 years.

Now, he stands to lose everything. He's scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on tax evasion and mail fraud charges. Prosecutors are asking that he go to prison for up to 19 years, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. And in the museum's civil suit against him in Barnstable, he is facing the possible sale of his Osterville house, already stripped of many furnishings by an FBI search warrant.

But more than 70 letters of support from Carter's friends, family and business associates, filed recently in federal court, chronicle a different side of the story: how a self-made son of alcoholic parents worked his way to the good life. And a 6½ page letter to the judge from Carter lays out his own version of his downfall.

"He does not talk a lot about his early years," wrote his wife, Karen, who has filed for divorce, "even to me."

She and Carter met when they were 9 years old and later became high-school sweethearts. His home life was so chaotic that during high school, Carter lived at times with Karen and other friends.

His parents were consumed by drink, according to Carter and others. The family was repeatedly evicted from rented duplexes, and meals were irregular. His dad beat his wife, Carter and his two sisters, according to a letter from older sister Deborah Leland.

But Carter, now 57, worked and earned scholarships to pay for college. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1974 and later received his master's degree from the University of Delaware, according to Leland and spokesmen for the schools.

He and Karen, 57, a former nurse, had a daughter, Elsbeth, now 24, to whom he has been a devoted and caring father, according to Elsbeth's letter to the court.

His local supporters include William Cook, president of the Cape Cod Maritime Museum, and David Scudder, vice president of Hy-Line Cruises and of the Cape museum's board, both of whom wrote letters asking the for court's leniency.

Carter was known for fundraising and maritime acumen, and he headed to the Independence Seaport Museum in 1989. After a few years, he descended into fraud. "I am ashamed and remorseful for these actions and can offer no credible excuse for what I did," Carter wrote to the judge. "At some point I guess I began to feel that I should be getting my fair share."

That rationalization, Carter wrote, stemmed from an organizational culture that let trustees use museum resources for their personal pleasure and award contracts to their friends and themselves.

One former board member, Pennsylvania State Sen. Vincent Fumo, was indicted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for defrauding the museum and other nonprofits.

Attorneys for the museum did not return the Times' calls. But Peter McCausland, board chairman, told the Inquirer that Carter's statements were "more lies" and defended board members.

Carter's fraud began with the restoration of a 1929 ketch, for which he used museum money, despite a salary of more than $200,000 and hefty bonuses.

He then exploited lax bookkeeping to buy goods for the "director's residence" in which he was required to live in Philadelphia. He also billed the museum for work done on his Osterville house, in the gated Oyster Harbors community.

"Eventually I became confused with what was mine and what belonged to the Museum as furnishings, paintings and other materials went back and forth from Philadelphia to Massachusetts," he wrote.

Yet he continued restoring boats for himself and snapping up luxury items for his Cape home until he was suspended and then fired as the museum's president last year.

By then, his health had deteriorated along with his Quaker morality, Carter wrote.. He has glaucoma, coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes and chronic back pain, among other maladies. He had triple bypass surgery after a 2003 heart attack.

"In retrospect, I am sure the health issues have much to do with my general loathing of myself for my actions," he wrote. He also blamed stress.

Carter suffered two more heart attacks, one just before his previously scheduled sentencing this month, according to the Inquirer.

"I am ashamed of my actions," he wrote, saying he was ready to accept punishment. "I ask myself everyday, 'what was I contemplating in this scheme...' and I honestly can't answer that question."

Hilary Russ can be reached at hruss@capecodonline.com.

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